Padraic Ratigan
Professor Padriac Ratigan is the main antagonist in The Great Mouse Detective, voiced by Vincent Price. Ratigan is responsible for such crimes as "the Big Ben Caper" and "the Tower Bridge Job". A genius criminal mastermind whose ego is matched only by his lust for power, Ratigan's latest insane plan is to kidnap a toymaker, force him to make a robotic duplicate of the queen, and use it to publicly proclaim him king in her place. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong! Only one thing stands in Professor Ratigan's way: "that miserable, second-rate detective, Basil of Baker Street". Professor Ratigan lives in a secret underground hideout where he has countless henchmen sing his praises, light his cigarettes, and cater to his every evil whim. At the end of the movie, Ratigan finally snaps out in extreme anger, and he shreds his clothing, extends his apparently retractable claws through his gloves, and attempts to kill Basil, slashing at him in an uncontrollable rage, any pretenses of mouse civilization abandoned. The battle ends with Ratigan falling to his death off of Big Ben. Although he is a rat, he hates being called one (preferring the description of a "big mouse"), as rats have a reputation of being base, dirty creatures. To eliminate any possible signs of lower breeding, he presents himself as a sophisticated dandy, sporting a full black tuxedo with a pink and purple cravat, white opera gloves (like the kind worn by Mickey Mouse), a black and red cape (similar to Count Dracula's) and a gold cigar holder. He also has pet cat named Felicia, whom he adores, and therefore he treats with love and respect since Felicia is loyal to him. Like all the greatest villains, Ratigan has a taste for the theatrical and has a tendency for throwing himself into melodramatic poses and giving lengthy and verbose speeches. Despite this he is prone to explosive bouts of violence, after which he must switch back to his dandified persona. Two examples would be feeding a drunk mouse named Bartholomew to his cat (named Felicia) for calling him "the world's greatest rat", and fatally tossing his lead henchman (a peg-legged bat with a crippled wing) off the side of his personal zeppelin to "lighten the load". He is also notable for being the only character played by Vincent Price to have said actor sing. Ratigan was based on Sherlock Holmes' archenemy, Professor Moriarty. He appeared in an episode of House of Mouse (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) when he set a trap for Basil, who thwarted it. He ranked #17 in the Top 30 Disney Villains (One better than Shan Yu but one under Madame Medusa).'' '' Personality Ratigan believes that he is superior to everyone around him and as such he expects the rest of the world to act as a chorus that sings his praises. He loves every minute of being evil, gloating "Oh, I love it when I'm nasty". In addition he has no scruples whatsoever, threatening women, children, old men and even royalty and taking a remorseless pride in his actions. Despite his vicious nature, Ratigan presents himself as a cultured and elegant dandy, but this is only a facade to hide the raging, insane monster within. His henchmen are scared of him for this reason and do their best to please him or experience his wrath. Ratigan's vanity is shown by his pretense at being "a big mouse" when in fact he is a sewer rat. It could be that his insatiable ambition and his expensive tastes are as a result of trying to distance himself from his undesirable background. Trivia * Ratigan was the first Disney villain to sing his own song since Kaa in 1967. * He made a cameo appearance in House of Mouse with Basil and Dr. Dawson when he made a trap for them. He was voiced by Maurice LaMarche. * He was based on Professor James Moriarty, the archenemy of Sherlock Holmes. * Ratigan is also similar to Raleigh the frog in Sly Cooper and the Thieving Raccoonus. Both villains are british and neither of them became evil because of a sad past, instead becoming criminals for the pure enjoyment of it. * Ratigan shares a few similarities with Cruella De Vil from One Hundred One Dalmatians. Both of their films involve the male (and only) protagonist (Basil in Ratigan's case, Pongo in Cruella's case) and the deurtagonist same to their gender (Dr. David Q. Dawson in Ratigan's case, Perdita in Cruella's case) with help from a dog (Toby for Basil and Dawson, Colonel for Pongo and Perdita) and were released to theaters for the second to last time in a 1980s/190th decade year (The Great Mouse Detective was released in 1986 while One Hundred One Dalmatians was released in 1985), then released to theaters the last time in a 1990s/200th decade year (The Great Mouse Detective was released in 1992 while One Hundred And One Dalmatians was released in 1991), first came to video (where it had 1992 FBI Warning Screens, a behind the scenes trailer for Aladdin, 1991 Feature Presentation logo, 1992 Clean Walt Disney Classics logo, 1990 Walt Disney Pictures logo, and start of the film (all for opening) and (both for the closing) a trailer for the next movie to be first released to home video as part of Walt Disney Classics (The Great Mouse Detective: The Rescuers, One Hundred One Dalmatians: The Great Mouse Detective) and a trailer for the 1992 release of Beauty And The Beast) as part of Walt Disney Classics in 1992, and were released to video a second time in 1999. They both are the main antagonist, live in England, smoke cigarette poles, intimidate their henchmen (Ratigan: Fidget and Bartholownew, Cruella: jasper and Horace Badun), smash the doors real hard, develop red eyes in the climaxes while chasing the protagonist, and gradually reveal their true personalities: utterly violent and insane. However, Ratigan is a male while Curella is a female. * Ratigan also shares a few traits with Gaston. They both sing songs that praise themselves with their minions joining along, threaten to hurt someone if they don't get what they want, reveal their true natures as violent and insane, fight the protagonists on a high area, and fall to their deaths and are not seen again. A major difference between them, however, is that Ratigan's minions obviously fear him (only continuing with their praising song for Ratigan when he gave the implied threat of feeding them to his cat Felicia if they didn't), while Gaston's minions do not fear him at all. * According to a deleted lyric in World's Greatest Criminal Mind; The Tower Bridge Job involved hurling several innocent mice within the Thames River, and then shooting whoever attempts to come up to the surface. * Vincent Price, the voice of Ratigan, said that doing Ratigan was his favorite role. * The Nostalgia Critic listed Ratigan as Number 7 on his "Top 11 Disney Villians" list and the best 'funny villain'. His female counterpart, The Nostalgia Chick, also listed him as Number 6 on her "Top 10 Evil Nostalgia Characters" list. * Ratigan shares a few similarities with Madame Medusa from The Rescuers. Both of their films involve mice (Bernard and Miss Biancia in Medusa's case, Basil Of Baker Street, Dr. Dawson, and Olivia Flaversham in Ratigan's case) on a rescue mission, were first released to video in 1992 as part of Walt Disney Classics. Both trailers for the 1992 releases (as part of Walt Disney Classics) for their films were seen on the release for the previous movie to be released to video for the first time in 1992 as part of Walt Disney Classics (The Rescuers: The Great Mouse Detective, The Great Mouse Detective: One Hundred And One Dalmatians). Both kidnap little girls (Medusa; Penny, Ratigan; Olivia Flaversham). They both are slender. They live in anglophone countries (Medusa lives in the United States while Ratigan lives in England). Both talk gently to their victims but also yell at them. Both threaten to take away their victim's loved ones if they don't give them what they want (Madame Medusa threatens to take away Penny's teddy bear if she didn't give her the Devil's Eye, while Ratigan threatens to kill Olivia if Hiram Flaversham doesn't build his Clockwerk Queen). Both have beloved pets opposite to their gender (Madame Medusa has Brutus and Nero the crocodiles, Ratigan has Felicia the cat). Both have a male sidekick they make do most of the work and abuse them (Mr. Snoops for Madame Medusa, Fidget the bat for Ratigan) Both double-cross their own sidekick (Madame Medusa keeps the Devil's Eye to herself instead of sharing it with Snoops and Ratigan throws Fidget off his blimp "to lighten the load"). Both chase the protagonists (Medusa, Bernard and Miss Bianca: Ratigan: Basil). 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